September 20, 2022
Manurewa kura develops water clean up tool
The co-creator of a digital water testing guide says knowing the whakapapa of wai is key to its restoration.
Te Kete Waiora provides both physical and online resources which whanau can use to measure the safety of waterways.
Rangipo Takuira-Mita says the project started in 2017 as a collaboration between Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Manurewa and the University of Auckland,
The 19-year-old says it was born because the tauira wanted to clean up their local awa.
“When you’re a kid you want to swim, you want to drink the water but you couldn’t because it’s South Auckland and it’s not healthy – you’re going to either get sick or pretty much die – so we decided to come up with something revive out water back to its natural state,” Ms Rakuira-Mita says.
She says the kura at the back of Manurewa Marae didn’t have a science lab, so working out of a converted shipping container the students would collect water samples and ship them off the Auckland University for testing.